*ha~* *ha~* *ha~*

He could hear hurried footsteps closer and closed. Together with them, the ragged breath of his only companion.

"They are here aren't they?"

"Yes..."

"How many?"

"80 thousand..."

"Hoo... They seem to be serious this time."

The girl approached him. Her looks were deceiving. Despite being quite tall at 1.75, she was rather slender, her silver hair matched her waxy skin and red eyes... One would've believed her to be 17, if not for her pointy ears. She was over 60 years old already.

Lyara was a victim since the moment she was born... Not only was she a pariah to society, being an elf, but she was also despised among elves for her skin and eyes... A moonlight elf, the cursed being that would be born once every millennium only to bring chaos and misery to the world... She was mistreated for decades... Until she found him. The one willing to take her for what she was, the one who showed her that her Life Magic could stop even time itself. Soleir was not only her savior, but also her lover.

She held his face in her hands and gave him a passionate kiss before pleading one last time.

"Please give up on this madness! You may lose yourself!"

"You know there's no other way."

"Just escape with me like we always do!"

"They'll just find us again and again... And this life of mine is almost over already..."

"I can keep you alive as long as it's necessary!"

"At what cost Ly... I don't want you to give your own life up for me!"

He held her face in his hands while touching their foreheads.

"You mean everything to me, and if leave this behind, it'll take decades before we can try it again."

"I know but..."

"Don't worry... It may take some time, but I will definitely find you again. Please, just bear with me for a while okay?"

"Yes... I love you... Please come find me."

"I will... I promise".

After giving her one last kiss, the middle-aged man bit the base of his thumb.

His blood dripping to the floor as a magic circle activated.

"I love you"

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She said one last time before being enveloped in the light of the magic circle, of which he'd just backed out of.

Soon after, all traces of the magic circle vanished, together with her.

Teleport.

The plan they had carefully plotted over the last twenty years was finally coming to fruition.

For three decades they fled. Country after country. Each time, the time before they were found diminished. Despite that, they managed to keep this last place secret. Not only this place. With great pains, Soleir managed to hide even Lyara's existence from the church. She had already suffered enough. She didn't deserve to live running anymore.

There was no way he could fend off an attack from over 80 thousand soldiers. Some were bound to be magicians and experienced veterans... Last fight he had a tough time dealing with the commander of the Papal Army of Bizancyum... That guy was bold.

Anyways... The past is in the past. Now he needed to think about the future. After he finished this magic, all they would find is his dead body.

He went deeper into the cave. Ten dead bodies were positioned around a decagram.

5 points of a pentagram; symbolizing humanity, power.

5 points of an inverted pentagram; symbolizing the fall, death.

The massive circle encompassed the whole room. A full 7 meters in radius. The most complex magic circle he'd ever made.

Catalysts, candles, skulls and precious stones and metals. Everything was calculated to the very last speck of dust.

The greatest Death Magic known to man. The knowledge that made him be hunted down by the church.

Ascension Magic.

Not only was it the only know kind of reincarnation magic. Ascension magic reincarnated the target into a superior form.

An Undead.

The creation of the desecrated creature known as the Plague Bringer. The Lich.

This was the magic he'd prepared all this time. He would die and become something beyond mere mortals.

Soleir sat in the middle of the magic circle. He took a sacrificial knife from his robes as he prepared himself for the greatest sacrifice.

He could start to hear the boots of soldiers marching towards the entrance of the cave. His time was up.

He slit his throat with the sacrificial knife. Falling to the ground as the circle started glowing in an ominous red. Dark miasma fluttered around him. His vision slowly becoming dark and blurry as he gurgled blood every time he attempted to breathe.

His vision turned bright red before falling into darkness.

Only to slowly come back elsewhere.

'Huh... Why am I in such a place?'

He woke up in a luxurious bedroom.

Woke up is not the right word as he was still half asleep.

He was laid in a very luxurious bed. His body felt weird... A little too small to say the least.

Two people were knelt near his bedding.

A man and a woman. As soon as he looked at them their eyes glistened and they jumped atop of him, crying their lungs out.

"It's a miracle!"

A woman's voice could be heard in the back.

"They said you were dead, but we never lost hope."

The woman hugging him said while crying.

"We love you so much, our little black iris."

Tears flowed from the man's eyes as he spoke.

What surprised Soleir the most was not that he was crying... Instead, was that he recognized the man in front of him. Vladmir Drakulea, known as Vlad Tepes, the Impaler.

'What twisted fate for my magic to have failed me like this... At least I'm the child of a fellow...'

His vision slowly darkened as he fell into slumber from the stress the body suffered with his reincarnation...

Necronomia was four when the miracle happened, and she came back to life.

She was a quiet girl with little to no expression who barely talked to anyone but her mother.

It would be four more years before her memories from the past life awakened once more.